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Literary Terms #21-40
n/a
21
English
11th Grade
01/08/2009

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Term
mood
Definition
the overall emotional atmosphere created in a literary work.
Term
plot
Definition
the patterns of happenings or arrangement in a story.
Term
plot outline
Definition
a brief explanation, in outline form, of the patterns of happenings or arrangement in a story.
Term
protagonist
Definition
the character in a story or drama in whom the action centers. The hero or heroine who is presented with a problem.
Term
realism
Definition
the attempt to present real life as at actually is without distortion or idealization by the author. The story tells itself.
Term
refrain
Definition
repetition in a regular pattern.
Term
rhyme schedule
Definition
the pattern of rhymes used in a stanza, verse or poem. It is usually denoted by letters.
Term
rising action
Definition
the section of most narratives in which the tension between the opposing forces (conflict) builds to a climax.
Term
romanticism
Definition
an attempt to present life in a picturesque, fanciful, exotic, emotional or imaginative manner. Often reflects a writer's interest in nature and love of supernatural. It is the opposite of realism since the author's subjectivity is now present.
Term
satire
Definition
a literary art of diminishing a subject by making it appear ridiculous or evoking toward it an attitude of ridicule, contempt or scorn to the end that man may improve his institutions.
Term
setting
Definition
the time and place of the events in the story; the physical background
Term
soliloquy
Definition
a speech delivered by a character alone to reveal his thoughts and problems.
Term
sonnet
Definition
a lyric poem with a traditional form of fourteen iambic pentameter lines.
Term
stanza
Definition
a unit verse made up of a particular pattern line of lengths and rhymes.
Term
style
Definition
a writer's distinctive handling of a language.
Term
symbol
Definition
something relatively concrete, such as an object, action, or character that signifies something relatively abstract such as a concept or idea
Term
theme
Definition
the main idea of a literary work, the statement the author wished to make about the meaning of life
Term
tone
Definition
the attitude of the author toward his/her subject
Term
tragedy
Definition
a term referring to any narrative writing in which the protagonist suffers the disaster after a struggle, but faces that disaster in such a way to become a hero
Term
understatement
Definition
making something less important than it really is
Term
iambic pentameter
Definition
the most common meter in English verse. it consists of a line 10 syllables long that is accented on every 2nd beat (it is the most common manner in which we speak English)
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